What a Weekend!

On Sunday at church, Rachel did something she hasn’t done since she was a baby. She fell asleep during Sacrament Meeting. That should have clued me in, but it didn’t. When I picked her up from nursery after church, the nursery leader said that she had been quiet and had kept to herself (not normal for her), and she was feeling warm. We went straight to Jeff’s parents’ house after church, but I grabbed some children’s tylenol and a thermometer just in case. Sure enough, Rachel had a fever with an axillary temperature of 101º. I gave her the children’s tylenol, and after an hour or so she started perking up a bit. She made her way outside to play on the deck. Unfortunately she was barefoot, and got a couple of bad splinters in her right foot. We tried to get them out, but only managed to get out half of one of them. They were certainly causing her some pain.

The next day Rachel indicated that her foot hurt, plus she still had a bit of a fever (though not as high as the day before). Knowing that I could not remove the splinters on my own I called the pediatrician’s office. The suggested letting her soak in a bath until her skin got wrinkly, and maybe the splinter would work its way out. I did, and it didn’t. I called back and we decided that I would bring Rachel in after lunch.

Since we were at the doctor anyway, I went ahead and had them check on her fever, and the nurse practitioner checked her throat and saw a very red throat with little pustules, and felt her throat and could feel little bumps (she showed me, and I could see and feel them too). So they took a throat culture to check for strep. The quick test came back negative, but to get a 100% accurate reading they had to give it 24 hours.

When everything else was done the nurse went after the splinters. It took a long time, but finally one was out. She went after the second one, but just couldn’t get it out. Rachel, meanwhile was crying and pleading for us to “go away!” Finally the doctor came in and he popped it out almost immediately. The nurse practitioner did all of the hard work, and the doctor benefited from that and got all of the glory. Isn’t that always how it goes? Anyway, I was very glad that we succeeded, and we went back home where Rachel climbed into my bed and rested pretty much the rest of the afternoon.

The next day (today) Rachel seemed to be feeling better. No fever, more active, although she has still been a little more whiny than normal. Finally I got a call from the doctor’s office and the long version of the test also came back negative, so Rachel at least doesn’t have strep throat.

Gabi had a fever last Thursday afternoon, but the next morning it was gone, and after consulting with the doctor’s office we figured it was just from teething, although Rachel having a fever a few days later makes me think that Gabi probably had the same virus and gave it to Rachel. Anyway, I think we are all better now!

I have started and not finished several times a post about Gabi and the struggles we have been having with her naps. She would cry and cry for seemingly forever, and finally fall asleep, but wake up 20 minutes later. It was exhausting and frustrating. (Rachel with her 3 hour naps really spoiled me!) I consulted with knowledgeable friends and professionals, and came up with a strategy to help Gabi nap better. Without going into all of the gory details, I will simply say that Gabi fell asleep for her nap today within 5 minutes, and slept for 2 hours. That makes me very happy!

After nap were over we went outside and enjoyed playing in the kiddie pool and the sprinkler.